Hong Kong: Hard to Leave

So an idea I had in the last post was that I was not in the rhythm of
Hong Kong, and felt somewhat out of sync. Since then, Tara and I have
mostly just walked and walked, and walked some more. A great cure for
jetlag I suppose, but my dogs do hurt. But the one real joy I've
found here is just wandering into random places and seeing all the
stores and the crowds (there were blocks and blocks of industrial
hardware shops...just little storefronts selling nothing but springs
for example).

It indeed is the case that the colonial Hong Kong of myth is long
gone, except for the adorable double-decker trams (but not a rickshaw
in sight; horrors). Indeed, any time I see a barbarian (round-eye)
outside of a hotel or a suit, he or she seems very out of place.

Our one attempt at gentility was high tea, which was not the idyllic
patronising colonialism I'd hoped for. But the art museum across the
street was a joy (for a buck fifty no less).

What is worth seeing here is the Chinese side of things to be sure,
rather than the colonial. So we're thinking it's time to just cut out
and move into China proper.

However, I truly have found that Hong Kong is hard to leave. I'm
trying to get to Guilin (a 1.5 hour flight from here), and it's a real
pain. Sure, we could just buy a plane ticket from HK, but it'd be
about 3 times as expensive as a ticket on the other side of the border
would be. And nobody seems to be able to book me a ticket over there
right now because of the weekend and all. Meanwhile, we had
originally wanted to take a train, but they don't leave from here of
course, they leave from Shenzen (the border town) or Guangzhou (nee
Canton)...actually, the CITS (Communist International Tourist
Shufflers, or something) told me there are no trains from Guangzhou
this time of year, which is odd given that the tracks from Shenzen run
through there...but my real concern was that it isn't possible to buy
a ticket anywhere in HK less than 4 days in advance...it's like
there's a, umm, Chinese wall or something. But they told us we'd have
no problem getting a ticket on the spot; then again, I never believe a
bureaucrat who answers that quickly.

Anyway, standard travel whingeing aside, the point is that if they are
going to make it hard for us to leave town, we're going to one up them
and make it harder....the current plan is to ditch this town tomorrow
morning and take a ferry from here to the edge of Guangzhou, then a
subway into town, then perhaps some Dim Sum, then we'll see how much
trouble we've got ourselves into.

We're going up the river into the Heart of Darkness after all. Wait,
that still doesn't make sense. Anyway, after looking at a bunch of
ink paintings in the museum, I'm very excited to see the inspirations
at Guilin.